


i loved you like a lamb, i fought just like a soldier

by teasgaypanic



Category: (kinda) - Fandom, Grey's Anatomy, Station 19 (TV)
Genre: Doctor Victoria Hughes, F/M, Fire Chief Ripley, I saw navy blue scrubs and this was born, i put mcd but idk if that will show up yet, just know it wont be ripley (at least yet)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-13 18:41:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29530719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teasgaypanic/pseuds/teasgaypanic
Summary: Dr. Victoria Hughes is ready to spend the rest of her life with her boyfriend, Lucas Ripley, but some hydrofluoric acid will get in the way of all the (somewhat quick) plans that she made. That won't stop her.OrVictoria in navy blue scrubs was unbeatable, so I decided that I need to write a fic.
Relationships: Victoria Hughes & Travis Montgomery, Victoria Hughes/Lucas Ripley
Comments: 12
Kudos: 23





	1. it all comes crumbling down

**Author's Note:**

> Three things. One, I just got into Station 19 so if I'm not great at characters just yet I'm working on getting better. Two, I'm only on season 9 of Greys so I won't be going too much into the business at Grey-Sloan until I get into newer seasons. And three, this all started when I got to season nine of greys and I saw Meredith in navy blue scrubs. My natural reaction as a lover of Vic Hughes was... Dr. Vic Hughes M.D (in navy blue scrubs).
> 
> Thank you Max for getting me into both Greys and S19 and for being my beta.

_**“This is Channel Nine reporting an update from the coffee warehouse fire that has now been burning for six hours, and we have just heard reports that Fire Chief Ripley of the Seattle Fire Department is entering the building to recover the last firefighter that has now been trapped in there.”** _

Dr. Victoria Hughes, the newest Orthopedic attending at Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital, feels the air rush out of her lungs as soon as she hears that. Quickly grabbing her cell phone, she brings up the number of her boyfriend and quickly sends off a message.

She’s gasping for breath, and she’s terrified that she is somehow connected to the fire chief that just ran into the warehouse fire. She knows that she technically is, what with him being the person that she just sent the message to. She knows that this might just be an impulsive decision because the fire chief isn’t supposed to run into a building when he’s on call, but she’s never been a heart and flowers girl so why not be impulsive and rash when your boyfriend decides that rushing into a building that is on fire is the best way to spend his day.

Vic makes the drive to their place. They never really had a reason to hide out in a shady diner, but for them, it was something fun to do. It gave them a little bit of thrill in their rather hectic life, but it was a good kind of hectic. Not the kind that involved rushing into a burning building, or having a patient crash on the OR table, but the kind of hectic that made you feel like having sex in said diner’s parking lot would be fun.

She pulls into the parking lot, and she walks to their booth calmly. Cameron is there to greet her, and it seems he started to put her favorite, that eggy thing, onto the grill as soon as he had seen her car in the lot.

The coffee might be coldish, and the bagels might be stale, but this is their place and she can think of no better place where she would want to do this.

After about a five-minute wait, the almost overly-friendly manager comes over and sets down her eggy thing in front of her. He also sets down Ripley’s favorite of the week, some sausage thing, which is really sweet considering he isn’t even here but they sometimes decided to meet here. She decides that she is going to eat it before he shows up (she’ll have to wait a bit because it takes the chief a while to leave a scene) because Maggie had warned them that he needed to cut down on the red meat.

She keeps an eye on the clock that is now reaching half an hour, and the muted TV that is still covering the warehouse fire even though all firefighters, including her boyfriend, have exited the building and it just needs to be cleaned.

**I’ll be there in twenty**

The message reads.

**okay babe**

She responds. She starts to feel the nerves course through her body, but she knows that this is what she wants to do. He is the rest of her life and the only thing that helped her get through her fifth year of residency and her board exams. She has never wanted something so badly in her life.

She decides that she needs someone to help calm her nerves, and maybe, just maybe, sort of, kind of, wants somebody to explain the situation with the warehouse and most importantly Ripley.

She shoots a text to her person.

**how was your day?**

It doesn’t take long for him to respond.

**last time i checked ripley was fine**

Travis responded. It was kind of rude for him to just assume things, even if he was completely right.

**whaaaaaaaa i was just checking in on you silly**

**yeah right vic but i promise hes fine**

Her friendship with Travis was a rather confusing thing. She tended not to become friends with every patient that walked in for heart surgery, but this was a special case. He was smart, funny, and best of all, sassy, and she decided as soon as she heard why he had heart surgery that she would help him get through his physical therapy.

It was actually why she had ended up meeting Ripley. After Travis made it through his post-op for his heart surgery, he still needed to go through physical therapy just to get back up to par, especially before he went running back into fires. Ripley had apparently been there that night after the skyscraper was under control to make sure Trav and everyone else was alright, but she had been in surgery so she wasn’t there to meet him then.

That was at least until she had started helping Travis through his physical therapy. Ripley would come every once in a while to see how he was doing, and he would call Vic daily to see how he was doing. Once Travis’ four weeks were up, it was already past the point of no return, and Ripley and she had gone on their first date.

Before she knew it an hour had passed. She was starting to get nervous, and she had no idea what was taking him this long. Usually, if he got held up at the office he would let her know why, but he apparently hadn’t deemed her worthy of a meeting today. She was going to have to go back to the hospital soon, and oh, did putting some joints back into place sound like something she needed right about now.

She understood they both lived busy lives, but they had a rule that if they were planning on meeting and then something came up, they could at least get somebody to send the other a message to let them know. With him working a dangerous job it just helped give her peace of mind, and it helped him keep a cool head when she was in an overly long surgery. You never know what could be happening at Grey-Sloan sometimes.

After another half an hour, she got tired of waiting for him and decided she would just give him a call later. She had to be back at the hospital in an hour for surgery anyway, so she paid her bill and left the diner.

She finally made it back to the hospital and she entered through the main entrance. As she was walking in she noticed her boyfriend exiting, and he looked rather pale. They both stopped walking when they saw each other, and she could see him mouth her name. Not her actual name though, her nickname, Eggy.

Before she could do anything else though, he fell forward in a faint and she wasn’t in time to catch him. Nurses and a nearby doctor were quick with the gurney, and before she could do anything they were checking vitals while running him towards the elevator.

The last thing she noticed was a hospital-wide page.

**Missing patient: Name: Lucas Ripley, Condition: Aortic Stenosis and Hydrofluoric Acid poisoning.**


	2. the rest of our lives

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucas and Vic learn more about what's happening moving forward, and we learn more about Vic's friendship with someone at the hospital.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you Max for betaing for me again, it really means a lot.
> 
> Also, I might be starting another fanfic soon that's going to be very different than this one, it will be a Vic-centric fic after Lucas' death and will involve Dean and Vic's friendship and a surprise slow-burn relationship later in the fic.

Vic couldn’t breathe. If she hadn’t had rounds with cardio as a resident, she would be absolutely terrified for herself. 

She knew it was something much worse.

She was having a panic attack. A panic attack because her boyfriend had just tried to leave the hospital that was apparently treating him for poisoning, and he had passed out right in front of her. 

She was okay…

That was a lie.

It was time for her to try out the thing she had worked on when she had some doubts in her career path, and she had thought about, ironically, becoming a firefighter. She wanted to help people, but she had a little breakdown after seeing her director burn alive after he decided following fire procedures wasn’t good enough for him.

_ I’m a little teapot _

_ Short and stout _

_ Here is my handle _

_ Here is my spout _

She must have looked crazy, it’s not like she had been miming the song (she had), but then her mentor at Grey-Sloan came up to her and tried to talk her through it.

Dr. Miranda Bailey was a god sent. Not only did she understand the stress of being a surgeon, but she also understood the stress that came with having a significant other who happened to run into buildings for a living.

“Alright, you need to figure out what is happening, Hughes. Yes, hydrofluoric poisoning is not something to celebrate, but we caught it early enough and we can work on getting him better,” Bailey told her. As always, Bailey knew exactly what needed to be said to Hughes.

‘Not much changes in five years,’ Vic thought ruly.

“Thank you, Bailey,” Vic responded. “Do you know anything so that I’m not walking in there blind?”

“Yes, the poisoning is hurting his heart, but again, we have caught it early enough that he can be helped.”

The conversation might’ve been short, but at least it gives Vic some time to think through what is happening while they make their way up to Luke’s hospital room.

At least… she thought they were. That was until she found herself outside of the attendings’ lounge.

“Did you really think I was going to take you there right away? You’re not in the best place at the moment, and I’m not going to let you walk in there while they make sure that your boyfriend is up and you’re able to see his beautiful blues or whatever,” Bailey said to the look of confusion on Vic’s face.

Vic made the conscious effort to wipe the tears away the tears that she hadn’t even known were starting to fall. She worked on getting her breathing under control. It wasn’t perfect, but it was getting better.

Once she had finally gotten herself under control, she decided that she needed to see Maggie, and most importantly her Scruffy.

Bailey had noticed that Vic’s panic attack had gotten under control, and stopped rubbing her back to kneel in front of her. “We’re going to go in there, we’re going to figure out what the situation is, and then we’re going to do all that we can to make sure he makes it out of this alive.”

“Wait? I’m going to call his sister real quick because I don’t know if she knows, and even if she does I would like to hear from her,” Vic said, wiping the last of her tears off her face. 

Bailey got that look, the look where she pretends to be surprised but she’s not surprised at all because she knows everything somehow. “Of course, of course.”

Vic got up and wiped her hands on her scrubs. She doesn’t really know why, but it feels somewhat like trying to wipe the blood off her hands after what has happened today. She’s been incredibly nervous since she walked into the hospital that day — no that’s a lie. She hasn’t been calm since she heard the news story this morning.

She walked out of the attending lounge and quickly made her way to Meredith’s famous crying closet, and quickly pulled up her phone and dialed Jennifer’s number.

The phone rang twice, and before she knew it she heard Jenn’s voice on the other line.

“Hey, Vic. Have you heard anything yet?” She could tell that Jenn had been crying from the sound of her voice.

“No, not yet. He was trying to leave the hospital, Jenn… I think he was trying to get to me cause I asked him to meet me.” 

“Vic, no, this isn’t your fault. He’s going to pull through, I have faith, and it’s not your fault he didn’t think it through and realize he could’ve just had someone at your place of work call or page you,” Jenn laughed, but Vic could tell that her heart wasn’t fully into it.

“Okay, okay, thank you, Jenn. Call me when you get here or just… ask somebody for me and I can come to grab you. Thank you for knocking some sense into me,” Vic replied, and she had been incredibly nervous about what Jenn’s response would’ve been. 

“Of course Vic, if anything changes will you let me know?” 

“Of course I will. See you soon.”

Vic hung up the phone. She was glad that Jenn was going to be here soon, and it gave them a chance to fully decide the next course of action. All of them, Luke, Jenn, and her, and no matter what they were going to make it through this.

Vic exited Meredith’s closet, surprisingly tear-free, and she made her way back to the attending lounge.

“How’d it go with his sister?” Bailey asked after looking up from the paperwork that she was doing.

“Not great, but she’s on her way.”

“Alright, well I just got a page and they have him awake and he’s talking. Are you good to go see him now?”

Vic quickly looked at her watch and realized that it had already been two hours since she had got back to the hospital. It had been terrifying, and not what she had been expecting when walking through the main entrance of the building this afternoon.

Bailey held on to Vic's forearm as they made their way up to Lucas’ room, and Vic kept checking her pager making sure that nothing went wrong in his room.

It took them a few minutes, but she knew that he was going to be okay, and she could feel Bailey continuing to look at her every few steps.

Her relationship with Bailey was complicated, to be completely honest, but now she knew that she would always have Bailey in her corner. Vic didn’t think that Bailey really liked her in her first two years of residency. Grey-Sloan was an… interesting place to work, to say the least. Bailey and she had only talked a little bit at the beginning of her residency, mainly because she had been Chief and she was just a lowly resident in the beginning.

It had all changed when Vic had lost a patient that she had gotten close to in her fourth year of residency. She had been absolutely terrified of what was going to happen, she had thought it was her fault at the time, but then her savior had been there.

It hadn’t been a relatively nice conversation (Bailey had told her to pull her head out of her ass), but it had been exactly what Vic had needed at the time. After that, they had become closer, and even Bailey had helped her study for her board exams when it had come time for them. Bailey had become Vic’s work mom, and Luke and she had even been on a few double dates with Bailey and Ben.

A surgeon and a firefighter, having a double date with a surgeon and a firefighter. It worked out rather well, even if Ben had been incredibly freaked out throughout the first time, and even the second. 

Bailey had even said that Vic had been her favorite resident since George O’Malley, and everybody in Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital knew how important a fact that was. It had made Vic cry because she hadn’t necessarily felt liked since her grandmother passed away and if she was being honest with herself even a little before then.

They finally made it to Luke’s room, and seeing him up and awake made her the happiest she’s been in — maybe her whole life. 

She quickly rushed forward and gave him the biggest kiss that she could. If it weren’t for the human body's stupid need for oxygen she would’ve continued to do so, but alas, the human anatomy hadn’t evolved as much as she would’ve liked.

“Hey Eggy,” Luke said once their faces had stopped trying to eat each other.

“Hey idiot, my brave, stupid, awesome, stupid idiot.”

The look of surprise was priceless. What did he expect, she loved him but he was kind of an idiot. An idiot who tried to leave the hospital was trying to keep him alive. The hospital in which she worked at and he easily could’ve had anybody in the building call her.

“I- I deserve that,” he said, and with a great, hearty laugh he kissed her again.

It was at that moment that Maggie Pierce walked in, and with a giant shake of her head, she looked exasperated with Lucas. “Well, there’s our runaway patient. The first thing we’re going to do is get you Calcium Gluconate to help counteract the hydrofluoric poisoning. You’re lucky for two different reasons, Chief Ripley. One of them is that we caught this early enough that we are able to treat it, even with your stunt. The other reason is that you fainted in our lobby, and you didn’t get any further than that.”

Oh, she knew that look on Maggie’s face. It was her this patient thinks they know better than the surgeon but they don’t but they still pretend they do. She’s spent a lot of time trying to help the people on the receiving end of that face, mainly if it was the interns or residents, but she knew Luke deserved it in this situation.

Luke looked rather expectantly to her, he’s heard enough stories of Vic trying to help people out when they were given that look from Bailey, Meredith, or Maggie, but all she did was laugh.

“Nope Scruffy, you’re on your own with this one,” she helped to clear up that she wasn’t actually mad at him with a kiss to the cheek, but he could still feel the breath from her laughter on it.

“Everyone is a critic,” he replied but laughed as well. He knew what he did was stupid, but he was worried about what Vic wanted to talk about and he sort of forgot about the fact that she worked at this hospital.

“Only when there’s something to criticize babe,” Vic replied, kissing his cheek once again.

“Luke,” a familiar voice said from the door, and everybody in the room looked over to see Jenn in the doorway. She rushed over to give him a hug, and after a few seconds, she pulled back and gave him a slap on the shoulder.

“Ow!” Luke cried. 

Vic went into doctor mode, and she gently pulled up the sleeve of Luke’s hospital gown. She noticed a large bruise, but experience told her that he had just dislocated his shoulder. 

“Ohhhh, that'll be fun to put back into place when your stats are better,” Vic said, and Luke felt a shiver run down his spine at the delight on her face.

“I thought surgeons were supposed to be nice,” Luke said with a chuckle. 

“And I thought that Fire Chiefs were supposed to understand the threats of hydrofluoric acid poisoning and the importance of first aid and getting help at a hospital,” she said with a laugh and that tilt of the head that Luke loved. “Guess we’re both wrong in this situation.”

“I love reunions, but we need to talk about the plan for treatment,” Maggie said, and both Luke and she looked over to look at her. “We were just in time to deal with the hydrofluoric acid, and we’ll have to monitor you for the next few days, but we're going to have to do surgery to fix that aortic stenosis.”

“Yes ma’am,” Luke replied with a mock salute. 

Vic chuckled. She was still mad at him for trying to leave without thinking it through fully, but she could take some of that frustration out when they allowed her to reset his arm.

After that was over, and Maggie had left with a quiet nod and Bailey with a gentle squeeze of Vic’s shoulder, it was just Luke, Vic, and Jenn in the room. 

“I’m glad to hear you’re okay Luke, but I hope you know I’m still upset with you,” Jenn said with a shake of her head but a fond smile.

“Yeah… I know,” he said. He had a frown marring his face, but it was gone before Jenn could see. He wasn’t as lucky with Vic though.

“What’s wrong Scruffy?” Vic asked.

“I’m sorry for worrying you guys. It’s not what I was trying to do, especially with you Eggy, but I was worried about what you wanted to say and I didn’t think it through.”

“It’s okay, you’re going to be okay, and I’ll yell at you later for it,” Vic replied with a sweet, but probably fake, smile. 

“Of course babe, I wouldn’t expect anything different,” he replied with a smile and gave her a kiss to the temple.

“I’m just glad you’re okay,” Vic said, and she could feel a tear falling down her cheek.

“I love you Eggy,” Luke said, and the look in his eyes made her cry just a little bit harder.

She meant to say I love you, she really did, but something got a little messed up, and the only thing that came out of her mouth was “Will you marry me?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> I'll always appreciate comments, and I have a loose plan at the moment so if you have any ideas let me know and I'll consider adding it in.


End file.
